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Help! My apache processes are all using 115MB of memory on startup.

Relevant information:

Linux version (uname -a)

Linux 2.6.31-14-generic-pae #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 16 15:22:42 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

Apache version (/usr/sbin/apache2 -v)

Server version: Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) Server built: Mar 9 2010 20:45:36

Top display (top -u www-data)

 PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 23377 www-data 20 0 115m 94m 3908 S 28 1.6 0:04.59 apache2 23375 www-data 20 0 119m 99m 5892 S 9 1.6 0:05.04 apache2 23324 www-data 20 0 116m 96m 5144 S 2 1.6 0:04.73 apache2 23283 www-data 20 0 115m 95m 4480 S 1 1.6 0:04.89 apache2 23259 www-data 20 0 116m 96m 5380 S 0 1.6 0:05.55 apache2 23370 www-data 20 0 115m 94m 4396 S 0 1.6 0:04.75 apache2 23229 www-data 20 0 116m 96m 6096 S 0 1.6 0:05.43 apache2 ... and so on ...

Memory map (pmap $(pidof apache2)) (actually, just one apache2 process)

Most of the memory is [anon], see line 5

23324: /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start 08048000 332K r-x-- /usr/sbin/apache2 0809b000 8K rw--- /usr/sbin/apache2 0809d000 12K rw--- [ anon ] 093a0000 92812K rw--- [ anon ] b5b6c000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b5b6d000 512K rw-s- [ shmid=0x13528003 ] b5fa8000 16K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_dns-2.7.so b5fac000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_dns-2.7.so b5fae000 120K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/suhosin.so b5fcc000 16K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/suhosin.so b5fd0000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b5fd1000 76K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/pdo.so b5fe4000 8K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/pdo.so b5fe6000 92K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/mysqli.so b5ffd000 8K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/mysqli.so b5fff000 1648K r-x-- /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.15.0.0 b619b000 268K rw--- /usr/lib/libmysqlclient.so.15.0.0 b61de000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b61f0000 92K r-x-- /usr/lib/libxcb.so.1.0.0 b6207000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libxcb.so.1.0.0 b6208000 164K r-x-- /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1.3.0 b6231000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libfontconfig.so.1.3.0 b6232000 124K r-x-- /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62.0.0 b6251000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libjpeg.so.62.0.0 b6252000 136K r-x-- /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0.15.0 b6274000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libpng12.so.0.15.0 b6275000 60K r-x-- /usr/lib/libXpm.so.4.11.0 b6284000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libXpm.so.4.11.0 b6285000 912K r-x-- /usr/lib/libX11.so.6.2.0 b6369000 12K rw--- /usr/lib/libX11.so.6.2.0 b636c000 424K r-x-- /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.16 b63d6000 12K rw--- /usr/lib/libfreetype.so.6.3.16 b63d9000 236K r-x-- /usr/lib/libt1.so.5.1.1 b6414000 12K rw--- /usr/lib/libt1.so.5.1.1 b6417000 84K rw--- [ anon ] b642c000 116K r-x-- /usr/lib/libgd.so.2.0.0 b6449000 128K rw--- /usr/lib/libgd.so.2.0.0 b6469000 16K rw--- [ anon ] b646d000 88K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/gd.so b6483000 16K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/gd.so b6487000 192K r-x-- /usr/lib/libidn.so.11.5.30 b64b7000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libidn.so.11.5.30 b64b8000 232K r-x-- /usr/lib/libcurl.so.4.0.1 b64f2000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libcurl.so.4.0.1 b64f8000 44K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/mysql.so b6503000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/mysql.so b6504000 268K r-x-- /usr/lib/libgmp.so.3.4.2 b6547000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libgmp.so.3.4.2 b6548000 648K r-x-- /usr/lib/libclamav.so.5.0.4 b65ea000 44K rw--- /usr/lib/libclamav.so.5.0.4 b65f8000 52K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/curl.so b6605000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/curl.so b6606000 148K r-x-- /usr/lib/libmcrypt.so.4.4.7 b662b000 8K rw--- /usr/lib/libmcrypt.so.4.4.7 b662d000 28K rw--- [ anon ] b6634000 24K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/pdo_mysql.so b663a000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/pdo_mysql.so b663b000 16K r-x-- /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0 b663f000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libXdmcp.so.6.0.0 b6640000 12K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/clamav.so b6643000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/clamav.so b6644000 1036K r-x-- /usr/lib/libc-client.so.2007.0 b6747000 28K rw--- /usr/lib/libc-client.so.2007.0 b674e000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b6750000 24K r-x-- /usr/lib/libltdl.so.3.1.6 b6756000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libltdl.so.3.1.6 b6757000 32K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/mcrypt.so b675f000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/mcrypt.so b6760000 88K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/imap.so b6776000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/imap.so b6777000 104K r-x-- /usr/local/lib/libssh2.so b6791000 4K rw--- /usr/local/lib/libssh2.so b6792000 1324K r-x-- /usr/lib/ZendOptimizer.so b68dd000 68K rw--- /usr/lib/ZendOptimizer.so b68ee000 20K rw--- [ anon ] b68f3000 8K r-x-- /usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0 b68f5000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libXau.so.6.0.0 b68f6000 52K r-x-- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/ssh2.so b6903000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/php5/20060613+lfs/ssh2.so b6904000 252K r---- /usr/lib/locale/en_US.utf8/LC_CTYPE b6974000 64K rw-s- /dev/zero (deleted) b6984000 36K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_files-2.7.so b698d000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_files-2.7.so b698f000 32K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_nis-2.7.so b6997000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_nis-2.7.so b6999000 28K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_compat-2.7.so b69a0000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnss_compat-2.7.so b69a2000 36K r-x-- /lib/libpam.so.0.81.6 b69ab000 4K rw--- /lib/libpam.so.0.81.6 b69ac000 28K r--s- /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache b69b3000 8K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_userdir.so b69b5000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_userdir.so b69b6000 148K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_ssl.so b69db000 8K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_ssl.so b69dd000 8K rw--- [ anon ] b69df000 8K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_setenvif.so b69e1000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_setenvif.so b69e2000 1128K r-x-- /usr/lib/libxml2.so.2.6.31 b6afc000 20K rw--- /usr/lib/libxml2.so.2.6.31 b6b01000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b6b02000 80K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnsl-2.7.so b6b16000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libnsl-2.7.so b6b18000 8K rw--- [ anon ] b6b1a000 140K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm-2.7.so b6b3d000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm-2.7.so b6b3f000 60K r-x-- /lib/libbz2.so.1.0.4 b6b4e000 4K rw--- /lib/libbz2.so.1.0.4 b6b4f000 4K r-x-- /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0.0.0 b6b50000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0.0.0 b6b51000 56K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_rewrite.so b6b5f000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_rewrite.so b6b60000 5060K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp5.so b7051000 208K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/libphp5.so b7085000 20K rw--- [ anon ] b708a000 28K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_negotiation.so b7091000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_negotiation.so b7092000 12K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_mime.so b7095000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_mime.so b7096000 36K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_include.so b709f000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_include.so b70a0000 4K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_env.so b70a1000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_env.so b70a2000 4K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_dir.so b70a3000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_dir.so b70a4000 20K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_cgi.so b70a9000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_cgi.so b70aa000 28K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_autoindex.so b70b1000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_autoindex.so b70b2000 4K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_user.so b70b3000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_user.so b70b4000 8K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_host.so b70b6000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_host.so b70b7000 8K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so b70b9000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_groupfile.so b70ba000 8K rw--- [ anon ] b70bc000 12K r-x-- /lib/libgpg-error.so.0.3.0 b70bf000 4K rw--- /lib/libgpg-error.so.0.3.0 b70c0000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b70c1000 8K r-x-- /lib/libkeyutils-1.2.so b70c3000 4K rw--- /lib/libkeyutils-1.2.so b70c4000 28K r-x-- /usr/lib/libkrb5support.so.0.1 b70cb000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libkrb5support.so.0.1 b70cc000 136K r-x-- /usr/lib/libk5crypto.so.3.1 b70ee000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libk5crypto.so.3.1 b70ef000 300K r-x-- /lib/libgcrypt.so.11.2.3 b713a000 8K rw--- /lib/libgcrypt.so.11.2.3 b713c000 80K r-x-- /usr/lib/libz.so.1.2.3.3 b7150000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libz.so.1.2.3.3 b7151000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b7152000 60K r-x-- /usr/lib/libtasn1.so.3.0.12 b7161000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libtasn1.so.3.0.12 b7162000 160K r-x-- /usr/lib/libgssapi_krb5.so.2.2 b718a000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libgssapi_krb5.so.2.2 b718b000 8K r-x-- /lib/libcom_err.so.2.1 b718d000 4K rw--- /lib/libcom_err.so.2.1 b718e000 556K r-x-- /usr/lib/libkrb5.so.3.3 b7219000 8K rw--- /usr/lib/libkrb5.so.3.3 b721b000 1192K r-x-- /usr/lib/i686/cmov/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 b7345000 84K rw--- /usr/lib/i686/cmov/libcrypto.so.0.9.8 b735a000 16K rw--- [ anon ] b735e000 248K r-x-- /usr/lib/i686/cmov/libssl.so.0.9.8 b739c000 16K rw--- /usr/lib/i686/cmov/libssl.so.0.9.8 b73a0000 452K r-x-- /usr/lib/libgnutls.so.13.9.1 b7411000 20K rw--- /usr/lib/libgnutls.so.13.9.1 b7416000 88K r-x-- /usr/lib/libsasl2.so.2.0.22 b742c000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libsasl2.so.2.0.22 b742d000 60K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libresolv-2.7.so b743c000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libresolv-2.7.so b743e000 8K rw--- [ anon ] b7440000 8K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl-2.7.so b7442000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl-2.7.so b7444000 36K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libcrypt-2.7.so b744d000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libcrypt-2.7.so b744f000 160K rw--- [ anon ] b7477000 28K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/librt-2.7.so b747e000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/librt-2.7.so b7480000 12K r-x-- /lib/libuuid.so.1.2 b7483000 4K rw--- /lib/libuuid.so.1.2 b7484000 124K r-x-- /usr/lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 b74a3000 8K rw--- /usr/lib/libexpat.so.1.5.2 b74a5000 396K r-x-- /usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 b7508000 8K rw--- /usr/lib/libsqlite3.so.0.8.6 b750a000 120K r-x-- /usr/lib/libpq.so.5.1 b7528000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libpq.so.5.1 b7529000 1172K r-x-- /usr/lib/libdb-4.6.so b764e000 8K rw--- /usr/lib/libdb-4.6.so b7650000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b7651000 48K r-x-- /usr/lib/liblber-2.4.so.2.0.5 b765d000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/liblber-2.4.so.2.0.5 b765e000 244K r-x-- /usr/lib/libldap_r-2.4.so.2.0.5 b769b000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libldap_r-2.4.so.2.0.5 b769c000 8K rw--- [ anon ] b769e000 1316K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.7.so b77e7000 4K r---- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.7.so b77e8000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc-2.7.so b77ea000 12K rw--- [ anon ] b77ed000 80K r-x-- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread-2.7.so b7801000 8K rw--- /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread-2.7.so b7803000 8K rw--- [ anon ] b7805000 136K r-x-- /usr/lib/libapr-1.so.0.2.11 b7827000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libapr-1.so.0.2.11 b7828000 4K rw--- [ anon ] b7829000 100K r-x-- /usr/lib/libaprutil-1.so.0.2.11 b7842000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libaprutil-1.so.0.2.11 b7843000 152K r-x-- /usr/lib/libpcre.so.3.12.1 b7869000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/libpcre.so.3.12.1 b786a000 4K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_default.so b786b000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authz_default.so b786c000 4K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authn_file.so b786d000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_authn_file.so b786e000 24K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_auth_digest.so b7874000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_auth_digest.so b7875000 8K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_auth_basic.so b7877000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_auth_basic.so b7878000 8K r-x-- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_alias.so b787a000 4K rw--- /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_alias.so b787b000 8K rw--- [ anon ] b787d000 4K r-x-- [ anon ] b787e000 104K r-x-- /lib/ld-2.7.so b7898000 8K rw--- /lib/ld-2.7.so bfd68000 76K rwx-- [ stack ] bfd7b000 8K rw--- [ anon ] total 119008K

I have no idea what's going on. I've tried adjusting the usual parameters (MaxClients, MaxRequestsPerClient, etc, but those don't do anything.) Note, also, that this is memory usage on startup - it doesn't grow, it just starts like this and then stays more or less constant.

Ideas?

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3
  • Please include your httpd.conf. What type of application is running? Commented Mar 22, 2010 at 21:44
  • It's nothing overly big. Mostly PHP pages and a bunch of mysql queries... Relevant parts: Timeout 300, KeepAlive On, MaxKeepAliveRequests 500, KeepAliveTimeout 5, StartServers 1, MinSpareServers 1, MaxSpareServers 5 , MaxClients 50 , MaxRequestsPerChild 0. We also have the following modules loaded (not compiled in): alias auth_basic auth_digest authn_file authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_user autoindex cgi dir env include mime negotiation php5 rewrite setenvif ssl userdir Commented Mar 22, 2010 at 21:56
  • What is your memory_limit set to in php.ini? Commented Mar 23, 2010 at 8:54

2 Answers 2

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2

Do you have a lot of virtual hosts? Are you using mod_balance?

We had a system where apache2 was serving as a front-end to a mod_perl/apache13 backend. Apache2 was expending an absurd amount of memory per connection (30-40mb UNSHARED, and we easily had 100's of simultaneous connections). It turns out the way we setup virtual hosts + load balancing wasn't really optimal in an apache2 system: Each one of our 200+ clients are assigned a dedicated port on our apache13 backend, and the front-end uses name-based virtual hosting, and load-balances to one of 4 backend nodes, direct to the 'client port'. Every client required it's own 'balancer' section, on top of it's own vhost section in apache2. nginx requires seperate balancer configurations too, but it seems to handle it far more optimally. We went from 500-600mb total for apache2, to 40-50mb tops for nginx.

Nginx saved us from having to wildly expand our hardware, and we've never looked back. You may want to consider using php-fcgi + nginx or lighttpd in your setup, you may see much better figures for memory usage.

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1
  • 1
    +1 for this. Apache2 is NOT recommended when using PHP since you have to use prefork. Investigate if you can use nginx, it will save you TONS of RAM. Commented Mar 23, 2010 at 8:52
0

Your apache config will affect the number of apache2 processes, but, short of too many modules loaded, it is unlikely to be the cause of your ram usage. You can look in /etc/apache2/mods-enabled/ to see what is loaded and remove anything you don't need.

Since Ubuntu is based on debian, I'll just imagine that every php5-* module is installed which contributes to quite a bit of RAM usage.

check /etc/php5/conf.d/ and see which modules are there. You might find modules there that you don't need:

/etc/php5/conf.d: curl.ini imap.ini memcached.ini mhash.ini mysql.ini pdo_mysql.ini gd.ini mcrypt.ini memcache.ini mysqli.ini pdo.ini

your memory usage isn't that bad:

# ps aux|grep apache www-data 1907 0.1 0.1 212372 13352 ? S 17:39 0:09 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

If you don't need pdo or imap, you might disable those to cut down your ram usage.

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